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QAnon fan Michigan GOP Chairwoman Kristina Karamo has instituted a sweeping purge to crush internal dissent within the party, firing her critics from key roles amid a serious financial crisis in their operational budget and a push to remove her from the chair, the Detroit News reports.

In a late Friday night email Karamo announced she had sacked Michigan GOP policy committee chair Andy Sebolt along with members Dawn Beattie and Ian Shetron. Karamo also completely dissolved the party’s conflict resolution committee – a panel whose express purpose was to resolve the kind of infighting that now has effectively destroyed it – and the events committee. We guess the second one makes sense since they don’t have any money to hold events that often turn violent anyway.

“She absolutely needs to be removed. I wish that there was some other way,” Sebolt said. “I wish that she could see the light and get away from the darkness she’s going down. But she’s got to do that herself. If she can’t do that herself, then we’re going to have to take some other approaches.”

That “other approaches” part definitely sounds like violence, right? Like it’s the kind of not particularly subtle euphemism that MAGA Republicans would use when they want to make threats in an interview with mainstream media, isn’t it? Swing state Republicans killing or maiming each other in a crucial swing state during an election year would be… Ehhh, let’s just end it here.

“I’m 12 Points up on Crooked Joe Biden – But he’s got the Justice Department and others suing me wherever and whenever possible – WEAPONIZATION, it’s called, and maybe that can make a difference. This has never been done on this scale before, not in our Country, but it opens up a very big and dangerous Pandora’s Box. Joe Biden should stop his Election Interfering Thugs before it is too late for him and the rest of the Country. As the leader of the Opposition Party, I should not be forced to campaign from inside a courthouse, which is very doable, but not very Democratic or convenient. This is where they want me to spend my time and money, but is not the way our system is supposed to work. If they filed these cases years ago, which they could have, this would not be a problem. But they want it to be a problem because they are BAD! Voters have, and will, reject it. To ALL Democrats, be careful what you wish for. God Bless America!” writes fat former President Trump in another deranged, fascistic screed on Truth Social posted Wednesday morning.

Not trying to overdo the Trump bullshit, as this is the third time we’ve picked up his posts in the last 12 hours. The problem is that the mainstream media are underdoing it and we have to do our part to “amplify” this sort of hateful garbage to help ensure it percolates down to all the fucking horserace circlejerkers who act like a $16 McDonald’s meal is worse than dying of COVID.

Trump posted again a few minutes after the one above, rehashing the same tired “defenses” in the fraud case in New York. It’s meaningless politically (nor is it some kind of funny self-own that would merit a pick up) and as such we’re not even going to link it. That’s the difference here.

Newly released police and autopsy records show former “America First” Republican Congressional candidate Jason Mariner, who lost the January 11, 2022 Florida 20th District special election to Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, had died of a fentanyl and cocaine overdose, WUFT reports.

Mariner, a convicted felon who as such technically shouldn’t even have been able to run under state law but apparently nobody bothered since FL-20 is a solid blue seat (Cherfilus-McCormick won by 59 percent in the special), was found dead in his father’s home on July 4, 2023.

“Getting much better Healthcare than Obamacare for the American people will be a priority of the Trump Administration. It is not a matter of cost, it is a matter of HEALTH. America will have one of the best Healthcare Plans anywhere in the world. Right now it has one of the WORST!” wrote disgraced former President Trump on Truth Social early Wednesday morning.

“I don’t want to terminate Obamacare, I want to REPLACE IT with MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE. Obamacare Sucks!!!” he added, as if he somehow didn’t already fail at this in every measurable way.

Trump then decided to defend two prominent New York Democrats, one of whom he famously hated, simply because they were accused of sexual assault under the same New York State law he was, writing “I hope that Mayor Eric Adam’s, Andrew Cuomo, and all of the others that got sued based on this ridiculous law where someone can be sued decades later, and with no proof, will fight it on being totally unfair and UNCONSTITUTIONAL. I got sued, decades later (she has no idea when her made up event took place!), by a woman – I HAD NO IDEA WHO SHE WAS. It was a made up fairytale that was brought and funded by political operatives for purposes of Election Interference.”

Remember Lauren Boebert? Sounds insane but the white trash QAnon fan Congresswoman and 36 year-old grandma has, at least from our vantage point, actually kept her head down and hasn’t said or done anything stupid since she was widely mocked for drunkenly groping some dude in a theater in Denver whilst vaping and then getting escorted out by police back in September.

President Biden had planned a trip last month to Colorado capitalize on Boebert’s self-inflicted weakness against Dem Adam Frisch – who just barely lost to Boebert in 2022 – but other shit got in the way after the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel. Now Joe’s getting back to it, NBC News reports.

BLM leader endorses Trump for 2024, accuses Dems of 'racist' policies: 'We're not stupid' https://t.co/LZTU7fqDwy

— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 29, 2023

Oh and – big shocker – Snopes reports this BLM “leader” is the co-founder of a Rhode Island chapter of the organization who previously called Capitol rioters – the Proud Boys in particular – “political prisoners.” As in he was in all likelihood a “Blacks for Trump” sandbagger from the get-go.

Remember Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas casino billionaire who was a power player–(cough, cough major donor)–in Republican politics and is now pushin’ up daisies because he died nearly two years ago?  Well, he’ll be happy to know that his widow, Miriam, is using some of the billions he left her to buy the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, reportedly buying a majority share of the club from fellow billionaire Mark Cuban, according to Yahoo Sports.

Adelson, whose late husband was the founder of the Sands International entertainment empire and worth an estimated $30 billion at the time of death, will pay $2 billion to take control of the NBA team from Cuban, who paid $285 million for the franchise in 2000.  She inherited 56% ownership in Sands International when her husband died, worth about $19 billion before trading shares to buy the club.

The club was valued at an estimated value of $3.5 billion for this transaction, slightly lower than many estimates of the Mavericks’ value.  The transaction fits Cuban’s vision of moving the franchise to an arena within a casino resort when its current lease is up, and partnering with the Adelson empire may push that goal. Better a franchise than a politician, I s’pose.

“MSNBC (MSDNC) uses FREE government approved airwaves, and yet it is nothing but a 24 hour hit job on Donald J Trump and the Republican Party for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE. Brian Robert’s, its Chairman and CEO, is a slimeball who has been able to get away with these constant attacks for years. It is the world’s biggest political contribution to the Radical Left Democrats who, by the way, are destroying our Country. Our so-called ‘government’ should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity. Much more to come, watch!” writes Herr Trümp to his volkssturm vowing only loyal media will survive the coming blitz. Heil Orange!

Sean Hannity is showing significant signs of cognitive decline, perhaps caused by too many hits to the head in his oft-cited MMA training sessions or perhaps caused by overworking his single remaining functioning synapse.  He’s clearly losing it and should not be in the position he holds.  Along with his court-demonstrated inability to discern between reality and lies, and his sociopathy to not care to disseminate the truth, Hannity now shows that his short-term memory is malfunctioning:  as he knowingly introduces the “House Oversight Committee chairman,” he then greets James Comer with, “Hello, Senator.”  Addressing a Congressman as a Senator moments after stating his title is *so clearly* a sign of mental incompetence Hannity should not be trusted to remember to take his meds.  Clearly, Hannity’s mental function is gone; he needs people to clean up his messes.  Fox should pull him from the air immediately, or he apparent senility might cost them another $787.5 million.

A Virgin Atlantic airliner making a test flight from London to New York became the first commercial aircraft powered by Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) made by waste fats and plant sugars, a significant step in the effort to make commercial aviation greener.

Per the Washington Post (via gift link), the test flight was to ensure the feasibility of the use of SAF in commercial craft.  Virgin Atlantic will not use the fuel because it is not yet commercially viable due to cost and availability, but the fuel used on this flight was calculated to result in 70% less carbon waste than it would have with standard aviation fuel.

Even before New York Republican Anthony D’Esposito brought a motion to the floor forcing a vote on the latest attempt to oust claimed fellow New Yorker George Santos within the next two days, Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett let slip that Santos had requested a “special order hour” slot, where members can speak their minds.  And here he goes!

UPDATE:  Well, like Santos himself, that was underwhelming.  Santos basically whined that if he should be expelled, he would not have been given “due process” because he had not yet been found guilty of anything.  (Except he admitted he defrauded people and lied about his qualifications… and lied about his fundraising… and lied about, well, virtually everything.  And an expulsion vote isn’t a criminal trial; there’s no standard of evidence.  It’s about the standard accepted by your peers, which in the Republican conference, are already pretty low.

Per Axios:  Students for Trump co-founder Ryan Fournier was arrested last week for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, “grabbing her right arm and striking her in the forehead” with his handgun resulting in a minor injury according to documents submitted to the magistrate court in Johnston County, Tennessee.

Unsurprisingly, this is not the 27-year-old Fournier’s first encounter with the law:  Fournier and his Students for Trump co-founder John Lambert were accused of falsely claiming to be attorneys; Lambert ended up pleading guilty in 2021 and was sentenced to 13 months in prison for wire fraud after Fournier flipped and testified for federal prosecutors.

As CNN’s Jamie Gangel reads from a transcript, Republican former Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney was gobsmacked by Kevin McCarthy’s hadj to Mar-a-Lago in the weeks after the January 6th Republican-led domestic terrorist attack on Congress caused by Trump encouraging a rabid mob to undermine the Constitution:  “Mar-a-Lago?  What the hell, Kevin?”

McCarthy responded with the most unbelievable of answers:  “They’re really worried.  Trump’s not eating, so they asked me to come see him.” Now, we ask you:  does this look like a man who’s missed a meal:

The National Christmas Tree, fully decorated this week for its official dedication on Thursday, was blown over after a major gust of wind swept across the Ellipse on Tuesday, WUSA CBS-9 in Washington reports.  Apparently, the War on Christmas is taking a number of hits because this is the second tree that was supposed to be this year’s holiday tree:  the first one was replaced after it developed a fungus.

The original tree, planted in October 2021, was taken down and replaced November 14th with a cut 40-foot Norway spruce,which was held in place with support cables.  The contractor who decorated the tree with return after the tree is uprighted, but plans for the Thursday ceremony are still in place.  Since 1973, the National Christmas has been a transplanted “living” evergreen, which over the years has had to be replaced after the tree became damaged or diseased.

Ooh ooh wait! “The House might expel-ish Santos on Thursday”! Or maybe “Santos might have to check out of Congress” because remember he stole a checkbook from a guy in Brazil?

Yeah, that one was a while ago. So was the “drag” and the “Jew-ish” but those stuck around a little better. Anyway for some reason California Dem Robert Garcia on Tuesday again introed a resolution to expel the lying piece of shit George Santos even though the chair of the House Ethics Committee also did before Thanksgiving. The vote will happen on Thursday, just hours after Santos is supposedly holding a “major” press conference on the steps of the Capitol. Should be fun for all.

Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman reports House GOP leaders are hoping Santos resigns at the presser, but if not they’ll likely move forward on Ethics Chair Michael Guest’s resolution instead of Catsro’s.

There was a time not long ago when we were pretty sure that “It’s not a crime for Trump to have believed these stories about a stolen election” was supposed to be only a political argument for Republicans tasked with defending him to mainstream media reporters in the hallways of the Capitol. Sure, saying “You should vote for this guy in 2024 even though he was so fucking stupid he thought Italian satellites and Chinese thermostats and a Venezuelan supercomputer built by a dictator who died a decade ago hacked into voting machines in 2020” doesn’t actually make any sense if you think about it for more than two seconds but it’s not like they have anything better.

We were thinking that was just a stopgap and at some point as the Orange God Emperor barrels toward going on trial two or three times while he’s trying to return to power that Donald’s overpaid lawyers would come up with some sort of at least sort of plausible legal defense and that would eventually percolate into the GOP’s political sound bytes. Like how fucking silly would that be if last summer’s “He really believed this stupid bullshit!” actually ended up being the legal defense?

Lol… The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Trump’s Georgia lawyer Steve Sadow on Monday notified the Fulton County Superior Court that he intends to move to have the sprawling RICO case against the Orange Pharaoh dismissed by arguing his stolen election fantasies were “core political speech” protected by the First Amendment, even though presiding Judge Scott McAfee already tossed that challenge from Sidney “Kraken” Powell before she flipped and pleaded guilty.

Trump-appointed Texas MAGA federal Judge Mark Pittman on Tuesday recused from demented white nationalist edgelord Elon Musk’s insane defamation lawsuit against Media Matters, kicking the case to similarly far-right Dubya appointee Judge Reed O’Connor, Politico’s Josh Gerstein reports.

Cranky old bastard Rupert Murdoch will sigh heavily and shuffle into the room next week for a deposition in voting technology company Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News for propagating bullshit conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, Reuters reports.

House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, the third member of the Hunter Biden Super Investigation squad, on Tuesday tweeted “I welcome Hunter Biden finally agreeing to testify. It’s long overdue for him to come clean in front of the American people,” before apparently getting the memo from his buddies James Comer and Jim Jordan they do NOT welcome Hunter coming clean in front of the American people and quickly deleting the tweet, the Messenger’s Stephen Neukam reports.